Zenon Zając was born on November 12, 1959, in Wolsztyn (then Poznań Voivodeship), to Czesław and Helena Zając. He was the youngest of five children. In 1973, he graduated from the Żegocki Primary School in Rostarzewo. Due to economic reasons, he decided to move to Silesia in search of work. In 1977, he completed the Mining Vocational School at KWK Wujek in Katowice. On January 3, 1978, he began working at the mine as a junior fitter. From May 17, he worked as a sorting worker (periods of employment: January 3, 1978 – April 15, 1980; May 17, 1980 – December 16, 1981). He joined NSZZ Solidarność.
He certainly took part in the protest on December 16, 1981. During the pacification of the strike by militia and military forces, he was shot in the chest and died on the spot. The autopsy conducted in December 1981 showed that the entry wound was located at the front of the chest on the left side, and the bullet exited below the right shoulder blade, damaging internal organs. The shot was fired from a considerable distance.
Zenon Zając was buried on December 23, 1981, in Rostarzewo.
“Before the funeral, officers of the security service reportedly visited the parish priest in Rostarzewo, instructing him not to speak about martial law in the church. The funeral procession started from the family home. He persuaded the family to wrap the coffin in a green-and-black banner and place a miner’s cap on top. ‘We will bury him as a miner,’ he was said to have told his mother."
He was unmarried and left behind his fiancée, Anna, whom he had planned to marry soon. On August 15, 1990, he was posthumously awarded the Gold Cross of Merit with Swords by the President of the Republic of Poland in exile, Ryszard Kaczorowski. On December 7, 1992, he was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta by the President of Poland, Lech Wałęsa. In 2015, he was also posthumously awarded the Cross of Freedom and Solidarity.
He is commemorated, along with the other miners who died on December 16, 1981, by the Monument to the Fallen Miners of “Wujek" (1991). A square in Rostarzewo has also been named in his honor (2011).
